|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rice Thresher
Phone:
|
Maria Stalford for the Thresher
Here in our warm, sometimes wacky campus, we might wonder what could be more antithetical than this supposed German staidness to the laidback, friendly Rice lifestyle boasted about in Orientation Week books. The German artists Wolfgang Winter and Berthold Horbelt, who are currently exhibiting a range of work at the Rice Art Gallery, show how both the stereotype of Germans and even Rice students' perceptions of themselves and their campus require considerable revision. When Winter and Horbelt visited Rice last March to plan their exhibition, they were struck by the rigidity of the layout of the campus and dismayed by what they saw as a lack of pleasant places for students to hang out and relax. Moreover, they said they perceived students to be extraordinarily serious, purposeful and disciplined in everything they did as they walked, talked and jogged on campus - a far cry, Winter explained, from the easygoing Frankfurt art school where he teaches. In this way, Winter and Horbelt's whimsical, breezy sculpture in Gallery Plaza (outside Sewall Hall) is a lighthearted attempt to give students a joyful place to kick back and enjoy themselves and each other. Kimberly Davenport, director of the Rice Art Gallery, pointed to the significance of the sculpture's innovation. "I feel very excited about it because it's something essentially unique at Rice - an outdoor constructed sculpture conceived as a gathering place for students. É As far as something new and dramatic for students to experience, this is a first," Davenport said. The "Kastenhaus," or "crate house" structure, is composed of 798 plastic crates that Germans regularly use to transport bottles of mineral water home from the store and back for recycling. The pale green and brick red crates, stacked 13 crates high, form a fluid, organic shape meant to complement the building and landscape forms of the structure's surroundings. Inside, deep purple and red stripes of PVC vinyl make up the vivid floor, and crates fitted with red leatherette cushions provide a place to sit and enjoy the sculpture's unique shape and playful colors. Instead of an actual door, there is a large, open doorway that heightens the structure's airy, welcoming feeling. Indeed, airiness is a central concern in Winter and Horbelt's work, and they have described their crate structures as lungs breathing new life into their environments. During the day, the bright colors of the crate structure beckon passers-by to a whimsical place of respite and shelter from sun. Inside, sunlight dapples through the openings in the crates, strewing the interior with patterns of shadows and patches of light like those on a forest floor. At night, the structure's interior lighting dazzlingly illuminates the plaza, creating an effect the artists compare to that of a lantern. Though conceived in a spirit of fun, play and whimsy, the "Kastenhaus" is an example of a serious aim present in all of Winter and Horbelt's work: the transformation of mundane, everyday artifacts into art objects with radically changed functions and meanings. This aim is especially well brought out in the three pieces inside the gallery, which are representative of the artists' corpus of work outside their beverage crate sculptures. In "Tunnel," a series of still photographs of one of Houston's downtown tunnels is projected onto the end of a pegboard tunnel that traverses the glass wall of the gallery. While viewing the life-size images of the tunnel, viewers also see their own reflections in the gallery's glass wall, enabling them to imagine themselves in the recorded scene. Much as the "Kastenhaus" transforms everyday drink crates into objects of contemplation, "Monument to a Day" commemorates the passage of what could otherwise have been an ordinary, forgettable day by encasing an 8-foot stack of Sept. 14 Houston Chronicle A & Epapers into a emerald-hued resin monolith. For the luminous, mesmerizing "Same Same Madonna" series, Winter and Horbelt effected an amazing metamorphosis of form and meaning. The artists made flexible, skin-like silicon casts of a mediocre 1950s Madonna sculpture they found in a Frankfurt monastery. They hung the casts to be filled, rather than setting them in plaster. When the hanging casts were filled with liquid resin, they were free to change shape and become wholly new, distorted forms. Though the "Kastenhaus" exhibition displays a wide array of Winter and Horbelt's work, a wonder at the novelty of transformation and the potential beauty of mundane objects is crucial to each piece. In the case of the crate house itself, this wonder has created a marvelous, pleasant place on campus to gather and to unwind.
- back - |
|||
|
Search the Thresher pages:
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of: The Rice Thresher, Rice University MS-524, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu |
